The Babbel Blog

Two new languages! Babbel highlights Norway and Denmark as your next destination of choice!

For the superstitious amongst us 13 is an unlucky number, but for language lovers it’s quite the opposite! Why? Because Babbel has now welcomed Norwegian and Danish to the fold, boosting the number of wonderful languages offered to a very fortunate 13!

Do you like the sound of cross country skiing in Norway or summer holidays in Denmark? We’ve just put the finishing touches to Beginners’ Courses for Norwegian and Danish, two more Scandinavian languages to add to the Swedish courses already available on Babbel. These courses provide a helping hand as you take the first steps in the languages, presenting the most important vocabulary for everyday situations as well as the grammar you need to build sentences creatively and independently.

For those who think that all Scandinavian languages are the same, think again!

Content Manager Karoline looked for inspiration in the Fjords

Danish may look similar to Swedish and even share a lot of vocabulary, but the pronunciation is quite something else. Whilst a “d” at the beginning of a word should be pronounced just like an English “d”, it suddenly becomes an English style “th” sound if placed with a fellow “d” in the middle of a word. The rather harmless looking sentence, “Hvad hedder du”? (“What’s your name?”), for example, sounds markedly different to what you may expect.

Our Danish Beginners’ Course has been suitably garnished with pronunciation classes to help you soar above such linguistic hurdles. In the Norwegian Beginners’ Course, users will be brought closer to the first grammar points, enabling them to get acquainted with unfamiliar combinations of consonants such as “kj” and “tj”. Armed with such invaluable information, you may even get through your first sentences in Norway without being found out as a foreigner.

With a little bit of practice, you may even release a near-native sounding, “Kan du kjøpe tjue kjeks?” (“Can you buy twenty biscuits?”).

On top of vocabulary and grammar, both courses also offer an insight into the regional cuisine and lifestyle of our Nordic neighbours. Should you one day lose your way whilst investigating a fjord, then you’ll realize that Norwegians are always willing to help. And if you bump into a Danish acquaintance, he may bid you farewell with the grateful words “Tak for sidst” even if you haven’t done anything to deserve them.

So that’s just a taster of what you can learn in the Beginners’ Courses for Danish and Norwegian. There’s plenty more inside, all of which you can try out on your next trip to the Scandinavian Peninsula.